


Taking Notice

by WonderlandMinion



Series: You and Me [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, Light Angst, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 10:04:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderlandMinion/pseuds/WonderlandMinion
Summary: Baekhyun always noticed when his friends were feeling down. He had brilliant observational skills. So, when Sehun was heartbroken, he noticed and tried to help and comfort him and giving him the love he was missing.Neither of them expected to fall in love with the other.





	Taking Notice

The thing about people is that, sometimes, they see only what you wish them to see. If you show them something superficial, they will not bother to scrap the surface in search for more. 

To Baekhyun this was more than fine. If people weren’t keen on make the effort for him, then he would reciprocate. So, naturally, many people only saw the goofy exterior he delivered. The cheeky smile, the sassy replies and the vibrant energy.

Truth to be told, he was so much more than that and he was thankful that, with his EXO brothers, he had found people who wanted to know him and loved him. However, and this came slightly funny for him, no one ever seem to notice how brilliant his observation skills were. It would only take a twitch of the mouth or furrow of eyebrows for him to understand someone’s mood.

Usually, he would watch every hyung and dongsaeng carefully, noticing how, sometimes, Jongdae’s or Minseok’s eyes would linger a little longer on a mirror, second guessing themselves. He would be extra careful with his jokes and compliment them throughout the next few days, until those ridiculous thoughts vanish.

He would notice how Yixing’s eyelids would drop a tiny fraction and immediately knew he was exhausted. He would bring Yixing head to his shoulder and let him nap whenever we could, biting his lip worriedly thinking if it was enough. 

He would notice how Tao would withdraw himself from others, meaning he would be missing Kris too much. Naturally, he would immediately arrange a skype call with Kris, yelled for Tao to join him and then leave them be afterwards.

He would notice how Jongin’s would twitch his fingers constantly. That meant that he was so tired from dancing for so long and his muscles were aching painfully. In a panic, he was quick to give the boy some massages, fearing some old injury was bothering the young. He would also make him nap a lot, which bothered him a lot.

He would notice the way that Junmeyon or Chaneyol would get up, in the middle of the night, just to sit in the dark, when the pressure of being an idol was being too much and the less pleasant thoughts plagued their minds. He would make them and himself some hot cocoa, join them in the living room and keep them silent company.

He would notice how LuHan would pinch the bridge of his nose from time to time to keep himself from sneezing when the beginning of a cold would pester him. Then he would be sure to bring an extra pair of gloves and a scarf with him, along with a thermos full of tea.

He would notice how Kyungsoo, from time to time, would come from his solo schedules and looked longingly at the empty living room. Baekhyun knew that it meant he missed his brothers. Baekhyun always called everyone to the living room and brought movies and popcorn out. It always felt good just having everyone there for some bonding time.

And he would notice Sehun. Oh boy did he! He was never the one to worry about the maknae. God knew that the sassy brat was very vocal about what he liked and what he didn’t like. If something was bothering Oh Sehun, you would be the first to know. That was the reason as to why Baekhyun was so alarmed when the younger suddenly became more and more silent. When he began to withdraw himself from the others and practicing nonstop, until he was about to collapse. 

Baekhyun started to pay a little more attention to his dongsaeng. Eying more carefully to find what he had missed.

It was when he started noticing how the bags around Sehun’s eyes were bigger and darker. How Sehun started to leave most of his food on the plate at meals. How he was the last to go to sleep, but the first to wake up. Baekhyun was positive that the muffled sobs he heard late at night, when everyone was snoring away, were Sehun’s.

It broke his heart. Especially when Sehun would smile and laugh it off when one of his hyungs confronted him about it, dismissing it and blaming the hectic schedule and exhaustion.

Baekhyun was frustrated. As much as he watched, it was difficult to pinpoint a valid reason for the maknae’s behavior. 

So, naturally, Baekhyun watched even more carefully. At some time, he thought he was borderline obsessive, but then he noticed. He noticed how every time Sehun approached LuHan, the older would dismiss him. How every time he tried to engage in a conversation with LuHan, the other would pet him in the head and then turn to Minseok or Yixing to chat. How every time that Sehun invited LuHan to hang out, LuHan had plans already.

Baekyun could understand the fact that LuHan was getting closer to EXO-M members and that, maybe, Minseok or Yixing, being older or more mature, would understand LuHan in a way that Sehun or even himself couldn’t, but it certainly didn’t excuse the blatant way he was ignoring the boy.

Trying to take care of the younger, Baekhyun started to dot on the maknae, taking him to buy bubble tea, playing with him in rehearsal, which always meant being glared by Junmeyon, or back hugging him in the dorms and it pleased him to no end when Sehun would smile at him. 

Then, the big argument happened.

One day, at the end of a rehearsal, Sehun timidly approached LuHan, asking him if they could have a chat, stating it was kind of urgent. To this day Baekhyun doesn’t know what made LuHan snap.

“God Sehun will you stop bothering me? It has been like this for weeks and I had enough of it. Stop being a brat and respect my space and my privacy.” Then he turned to the rest of the members. “This is what happens when you spoil him and do whatever he wants.”

When LuHan grabbed his things and left, the silence was deafening. Slowly, very slowly, Sehun grabbed his backpack and left the room. When the door closed, everyone woke up from their dazed state.  
“I’ll go talk with LuHan. He was out of line.” Minseok stated calmly before pursuing his friend, taking Yixing and Tao with him, just in case.

“You should go after him.” Baekhyun turned around to see Chanyeol and Jongin. “Out of anyone in this room, you are the only one he will listen to right now.”

“What are you talking about?” 

Jongin huffed slightly 

“Come on. We all have seen how LuHan ignores him, time after time, and how you have tried to make it better. Don’t think for a second we are as oblivious as Luhan.”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes and elbowed Jongin on the stomach, before turning to Baekhyun. 

“Baek, we are not as oblivious as you think.” He said gently “We saw the way LuHan is, for the lack of better word, being a little shit to Sehun. We noticed how that affected him and we noticed how you have been taking care of that. He trusts you more than anyone, at this moment. So, go after him at take care of him. I am honestly tired of the way he has been treated and I can’t see him more hurt.”

Baekhyun watched his friends for a moment before nodding and leaving to find the maknae.

When he found Sehun, his heart broke in half. The younger boy was sitting in a corner of a room, chin resting on bent knees and tears streaming down his face. The fact that he wasn’t making a sound was more painful than anything. He approached the boy and sat right beside him. Sehun tilted his head to look at him, before letting his forehead rest on Baekhyun shoulder. Baekhyun brought his hand to the younger boy’s head, playing with the soft strands of hair.

“Why do I have to love him like this? Why doesn’t he get that? Is it because I am not good enough, Baek?” 

“No.” Whispered Baekhyun. “You are perfect the way you are. He is just being an obnoxiously oblivious person. Don’t you dare second guess yourself, especially not because of him.”

“It hurts hyung.” 

“I know Sehunnie, but hyung promises to take care of you.” Replied Baekhyun before entwining the fingers from his free hand with Sehun’s. “Hyung will be here for you. I promise”. 

And when Jongin and Chanyeol found them, they were both sleeping soundly, and it was difficult to know when one ended and the other began.

After that day, everyone noticed the subtle changes of their interactions. It was so frequent to see both of them cuddled up in front of the television, arms around each other and talking quietly to each other.

Kyungsoo would always find the two of them together in the kitchen, early in the morning. Baekhyun would be sitting on the countertop and Sehun would be standing between his legs, nose buried in his hyung’s neck.

Junmeyon lost count of how many times he caught Sehun sneaking out of their shared room, in the middle of the night, just to see him surface from Baekhyun’s room in the morning.

Tao and Jongdae had caught them together once, in the practicing room, talking quietly to one another, foreheads touching, hands clasped together tightly, parting only to softly caress a cheek or play with a lock of hair. 

LuHan, however, didn’t notice. Jongin was getting steadily frustrated with his hyung. How could he not notice? That was something he didn’t understand. Some time ago, he actually believed that LuHan would notice Sehun’s affections at some point. He didn’t.

Now, with Baekhyun and Sehun starting to grow inseparable, he sure hoped that LuHan would stop being a stubborn idiot and realize what he could had, if he hadn’t been that dumb.  
Jongin had confided in Chanyeo all of his thoughts about the situation, but the older boy had scoffed.

“LuHan will only notice what slipped between his fingers when it’s too late.”

When Jongin sat thinking about it, the more he realized Chanyeol was right. Minseok had told them about the conversation he had with LuHan, regarding his attitude towards Sehun, and what he understood was that, in LuHan’s mind, he hadn’t done anything wrong and therefore there was nothing to apologize for. 

Jongin sniffed disdainfully at this. He surely had not missed the look of adoration in Sehun’s eyes when he gazed at Baekhyun or the way Baekhyun would reciprocate it. Sehun wouldn’t even blink twice in LuHan’s direction these days. Slowly but steadily things were changing, and he hoped to have popcorn at the ready when everything blasted back in LuHan’s face.

“What an idiot you are Luhan.”

As if he heard his name, LuHan appeared in the living room, where Jongin sat alone. The younger laughed quietly.

“You are about the loose the best thing you never had.” He said before leaving the room leaving a puzzled LuHan behind.

Chanyeol had told Jongin, in agreeing with his own point of view, that no story could finish without a dramatic ending and damn if he wasn’t right. It was a pity that he didn’t get his popcorn. 

As per usual, they were in the practice room, rehearsing some dance steps. Baekhyun was all over Sehun, coddling him since the younger had been showing signs of having a cold, coughing and sneezing like crazy, but no one expected him to slump forward and simply faint. The only thing preventing him from face planting was Yixing and his fast reflexes. However, they were not expecting LuHan’s bursting into hysterics, running to Sehun and nearly squashing Baekhyun in the process.

“Sehun! Sehun wake up! Come on Sehunnie.” He begged slapping the maknae in the cheeks gently. 

When the maknae finally woke up he looked up to LuHan’s face and called Baekhyun’s name.

LuHan felt as if someone had slapped him hard. His little baby, his little Sehunnie was not calling his name. Hell, he didn’t seem to realize that Luhan was in front of him at all, if his stretched out arms in Baekhyun’s directions were any indication. He felt himself stepping backwards and a frantic Baekhyun took his place near Sehun. 

He watched how Baekhyun’s gentle hands brought the maknae’s head to his lap, stroking his hair and felling his temperature. He saw the way Sehun’s eye lit up when his hyung appeared in his vision field. The smile that rose on his lips and the way that Baekhyun’s eyes soften a tad more before grabbing the younger’s hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss them softly.

He actually felt as if he was intruding in a very private moment between the two. 

A pair of arms dragging him away from the room brought him to the present and he turned to look into Chanyeol.

“Chanyeol! Sehun, he…” He babbled to the taller boy before Chanyeol cut him off.

“Sehun is gonna be fine. Baekhyun is in there taking care of him.”

“But I…” LuHan didn’t even manage to get a coherent sentence out before he was cut off again by Jongin.

“You lost LuHan.” At this declaration, LuHan looked at him with wide eyes. “On the moment you ignored him when all he did was love you.”

“I didn’t know…” He whispered.

Jongin turned to face him so fast that Chanyeol actually bumped into him.

“How didn’t you know? He was blatantly obvious about it. The only thing he didn’t do was kneel at your feet and beg. You can’t be serious when you say that.” 

Actually, he wasn’t. If he was honest enough, he would admit that noticed Sehun’s feelings, he was just scared to act upon what he, himself, felt.  
Jongin, not the one to filter his words, continued his speech 

“He tried and tried, and you gave him the cold shoulder. What were you expecting? For him to wait around?”

And with that last question Jongin turned and left. Chanyeol stood there not knowing what to do.

“Actually” began LuHan with tears in his eyes “I was expecting him to wait for me.”

Chanyeol sighed. Jongin was a terrible friend for leaving him alone with a crying LuHan. And even a worse friend to do it after saying a bunch of harsh words, albeit true, to the boy.

“He waited hyung. He did! But it was becoming too much for him. What you did, consciously or unconsciously, left him too fragile. Another blow and he would break. And now, he has Baekhyun.”

With those final words, Chanyeol left LuHan alone. 

When Chanyeol disappeared in the corridor LuHan slid down the wall and sobbed. He sobbed for Sehun, whom he had hurt, he sobbed for himself, in pity, but mainly, he sobbed for losing something precious to him due to fear.

On the other room, Baekhyun was smothering Sehun. He had literally felt his heart drop to his stomach when the other fainted.

“Baekhyunnie am I fine. Really! It was just some dizziness.” Sehun immediately shut up upon seeing the glare that Baekhyun threw him.

“Being dizzy is when your head spins and you have a need to sit down. Not face planting on the floor.”

Sehun laughed at his hyung before taking notice of the suspicious gleam on his hyung’s eyes. He took both Baekhyun’s hand and kissed them softly.

“I’m ok, I promise. I was a bit dizzy and I didn’t want to stop to sit down. I am perfectly fine. I promise.” 

Baekhyun allowed himself to spill a tear. 

“You are such an idiot. I was so scared. You just fell and I couldn’t catch you. I wasn’t near enough. I should have forced to you to stay home today. What if you had hurt yourself? What if…”.  
Baekhyun was interrupted by a pair of soft lips, grazing his own with such softness and sweetness that he actually let a few more tears fell.

“I’m sorry” whispered Sehun resting his forehead to his. Baekhyun smiled. He loved how Sehun would just lean forward and make their foreheads touch. It was such a simple gesture, but it felt as if they were on a little bubble, just the two of them, and that made his heart beat so fast that it was threatening to burst of his chest.

“I’m sorry for worrying you. I’m sorry for not listening to you and I’m sorry for making you cry.” 

Each sentence uttered was punctuated with a kiss on his lips.

“Baekhyun, for a long time I loved someone else and those feelings can’t be erased that quickly. Even if I don’t see him like I used to, there is still something there. However, what I can say is that I feel something for you too. It’s not just liking you anymore. It is something else. It’s more. And I was hoping you wouldn’t mind joining me in finding exactly what this is.”

Baekhyun nodded. He wouldn’t mind. Not at all. 

“Even if it takes a long time?” Asked Sehun, trying to make sure, before joining their lips again. 

“Even if took forever!” Whispered Baekhyun before hugging his lover tightly against him.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello everyone! It is I, WonderlandMinion! How have you all been doing? I wrote this stories a few years ago, probably like five or something, and now, after re-reading it and fixing some mistakes, I decided to posted in on AO3 (to those who already read it on AFF, do not worry, it's me, just in another platform!).  
I apologize for any mistakes you may find. Even though I try and proof read it, some mistakes might escape me and, since I am not a native speaker, you'll probably find them.  
If you like the story, leave a kudos or a comment, it's always appreciated.  
Also, I do not allow any translation or reposting of this story without permission. That is plagiarism!  
Love you all!


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